This invention relates to an infant-restraining protective seat having at least a seat portion for seating an infant. More particularly, the invention relates to an infant-restraining protective seat which is secured to the seat of a vehicle by fastening, within the seat portion, fastening means of a seat belt device installed in the seat of the vehicle and having at least the fastening means, such as a tongue and buckle.
In a vehicle such as an automobile or airplane, restraining protective seats for infants have been used in order to maintain the seated posture of an infant during travel and protect the infant from shock at the time of acceleration and deceleration. An infant restraining and protective seat of this kind has a reclinable seat main body reclinably attached to a base member and integrally molded to include a seat portion which seats an infant and a seat back for supporting the back of the seated infant, and an infant seat belt device for restraining the seated infant. The infant seat belt device has an infant seat belt, a chest-contact pad attached to the end of the infant seat belt, a tongue provided on the end of the chest-contact pad, and a buckle with which the tongue is engaged in a fastenable and unfastenable manner. In a state in which the tongue of the infant seat belt is engaged with and locked by the buckle, the infant seated on the seat portion is restrained by the infant seat belt and chest-contact pad.
The infant-restraining protective seat of this kind is secured to a vehicle seat by a seat belt device installed in a seat of the vehicle for the purpose of restraining a passenger seated in the seat. More specifically, the protective seat has a base portion formed to have large through-holes on the right and left. The tongue and buckle of the vehicle seat belt are passed through these holes from the left and right and are fastened within the base portion, thereby securing the protective seat to the vehicle seat.
However, depending upon the type of vehicle, there are instances where the width of the vehicle seat in which the infant-restraining protective seat is to be secured, namely the distance between the left and right side walls or left and right arm rests of the vehicle seat, is small. When an attempt is made to insert the tongue and buckle of the seat belt from the left and right of the protective seat and fasten them within the base portion of the protective seat in order to secure the protective seat in such a vehicle seat, the clearance between the left and right sides of the protective seat and the left and right side walls or left and right arm rests of the vehicle seat will be too small, thus making it extremely troublesome to insert the tongue and buckle through the through-holes of the base portion and difficult to fasten and unfasten the tongue and buckle. Accordingly, a problem which arises is that labor is required to fixedly attach the infant-restraining protective seat to the vehicle seat belt and detach it from the vehicle seat.